The win was the program’s first in three state tournament appearances and sets up an 11:30 a.m. Friday semifinal with Mt. Juliet (30-1).

“We talk about one little step at a time, one possession at a time, it’s the same thing here,” Blackman coach Chad Hibdon said. “You’ve got to take care of your first business, which is to move on. When you look at that gold ball or cutting down the nets, you ask, ‘What can we do to win this basketball game?”

Blackman (32-1) led just 5-2 after the first quarter after starting the game 0-of-4 from the field. But once the Lady Blaze began to figure out Houston’s zone defense, they pulled away.

The Lady Blaze held Houston to 4-of-18 shooting (22.2 percent) in the first half, using their defense to force tough shots to take a 20-11 lead.

Blackman made an effort to attack Houston’s 2-3 defense by attacking the rim in the second half. After not getting to the foul line in the first half, the Lady Blaze shot 18 of 25 in the second half.

“(Hibdon) is always telling us we need to get fouled, that will help our offense,” said Blackman sophomore Crystal Dangerfield, who finished with a game-high 18 points and went 9-of-10 from the foul line. “In practice we shoot one-and-ones just to focus on being in situations where you have to make it.”

Blackman extended an 11-point third-quarter lead to 33-18 in part by hitting 7 of 8 free throws in the final five minutes of the quarter.

“We weren’t being as aggressive (in the first half) and they were sitting back in the zone and taking away some of the driving lanes,” Hibdon said. “We had to get some ball reversals. When we did that, some of the gaps in the zone showed up. And we started driving it deeper in transition.”

“You’ve got to make more shots to win,” Houston coach Chad Becker said. “I thought the game changed in the third quarter. There were three possessions in a row where we had a shot to dive in and cut it to single digits. And we missed shots that were makeable, and they got 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 opportunities.”